It's a wrap up!

It is with great gratitude that I want to say a huge thank you for giving me your time to look and read my blog.  This year I have learned a lot about blogging, taking photos of my quilts, attaining new quilting skills, new techniques, starting to design my own quilts and many little details that seem minor but has contributed toward the journey.  There is still a lot more that I have to learn (both in life and quilting) and I look forward to learning them in the new year.  With that I am forever humbled to have the platform to share all these pockets of experiences with you, and  I hope you'll continue to stop by my blog as your support is immensely appreciated and valued.

Here wishing you a Blessed Christmas, Happy Holiday and Happy New Year. 

A Quilt for Childhood Memories

Childhood Quilt

Carol and I have been friends since we were toddlers.  We went to the same kindergarten, primary and high school.  Our parents are neighbors till this day, and although I no longer lived with my parents or in the same country, we still remained great friends.  Carol and I share a passion for craft since we were kids.  We did art classes together, often spent time talking and making craft stuff, and bounce interesting craft ideas of each other.  She is a beautiful person with a lot of patience, sweet nature and has great ideas for anything everything crafty.

I used the humble HST to make a simple configuration to reflect on the innocence and non-complicated life that we felt as children back then.  Our childhood was filled with lots of play, crafts and tea-parties with our teddy bears and dolls in the garden, and many other simple pleasures in life!  

The overall quilt has a nostalgic childhood feel to it.  It reminds me of how the days used to passed by so slowly and every play time felt like an adventure or a craft idea to be discovered.  I can imagine us as kids using this quilt as our play mat, building a tent out of it, or using it as a picnic rug for our tea parties.

I made this quilt to thank her for her support in every part of my journey, for the endless creative ideas that we have both shared and will still continue to share, and most of all for our beautiful childhood and friendship.

"Friendship isn't about whom you know the longest... It's about who came, and never left your side."

 - Unknown-

Quilt Facts:

Design: Humble HST

Quilt Size: 60" x 72"

Quilting: Machine ditch stitched 

Fabric: Sew Cherry & Emma Louise in Mint

Backing: Bijoux Swirly Buds Gold & remnants from Sew Cherry & Salt Air 

Progress links:

Journey 1

Journey 2

These Are My Favorite Things

Lemon tart, freddos, Big M, Magnum choc mint ice-cream & Yoga

You must be wondering what has the heading to do with quilting.  Well, they were my inspiration for colors choices for Surprise Quilt No.1.  It is a strange combination for a quilt inspiration but they are one of my yoga, travel and all time bestie's favorite things (and mine too!).  Angeline is an amazing yoga teacher (that's her on the mood board).  We often have this yearly 'conference' during summertime when she visits me in Melbourne.  The 'conference' entails daily yoga practice together (often having a good laugh in class with our inner child coming out to play), and talking all things yoga and creative ideas while enjoying a slice (or two) of lemon tart, a couple of delicious snack size chocolate Freddos, a shared glass of chocolate milk called Big M or on a very hot day, a Magnum Peppermint ice-cream mini stick.  During our conference she has the hard task of motivating my lazy bum into practicing daily to work off all these yummy treats.

It was love at first sight when I saw the original Swoon quilt.  I love the simplicity of the design and with just two contrasting or complimentary fabric it produced a lovely quilt.  It was not a hard quilt to make but I was challenged during the machine quilting phase.  Even though it was heaps faster than hand quilting, the size of the quilt made it quite a task from start to finish.  However, I'm happy with the overall effect and glad that I persevered with it.

While taking pictures of the finished quilt, I realized that the design resonates with the mandala I painted a few years ago.  I was inspired by the designs and meaning of mandala after my trip to India with Angeline.  The word 'mandala' is Sanskrit for circle and center.  It represents the visible world that we live in, and the invisible world which resides in our soul and body.  Mandala forms a representation that reveals an inner truth about oneself with the world around it (www.mandalaprimitivepop.com).

Angeline and I traveled to India together in 2008.  It was our first trip together even though we have known each other since we were kids.  Our love for yoga binds our friendship and the profound impact it has made on our lives since we started our separate journey with it many years ago.  It was a memorable trip for the both of us as we yoga, laughed, shopped, bargained, held our breath as we zipped around town in a three wheeler and ate our way from the south to the north of India.

This quilt is made for Angeline to thank her for our amazing friendship, to the many crazy experiences we had, and to the ones we will continue to make as we journey our way through life.

Quilt Facts:

Quilt design: Swoon

By: Camille Roskelly of Simplify

Size: 80" x 80"

Fabric: Various

Quilting: Machine quilted 1/2" lines

Fleury Dresden

The Fleury Dresden quilt is progressing along well.  I love the fabric colors and combination which is making the overall quilt look very pretty and shabby chic-ish.

It was fun mixing up the fabrics and sewing the plates together.  Overall it has been an easy sewing process and the colorful fabrics made it a very fun and cheerful project to do.

I am currently preparing the discs and I'll be all set to take the different components with me to do some applique in between spending time with my parents, catching up with my God-daughter, friends and family and relaxing back home over the Christmas holidays.  

Fabric Love #3

I have selected shades of yellow, orange, pinks and red fabrics  for a Dresden quilt that I am going to make next.  The fabric consist of designers such as Heather Bailey's Nicey Jane and Bijoux, Denise Schmidt's Hope Valley, Amy Butler's Midwest Modern and Daisy Chain, and Volari Wells' Nest.

The Dresden quilt was one of the most popular design during the 1920's - 30's.  It's been one of my 'To do' list of quilts after seeing a contemporary example in the book Material Obsession.  Above is a mood board that I put together for some inspiration and ideas for the quilt.

As I have finished Surprise Quilt no.2 I have started on the background fabric for the dresden plates on the weekend.  So far it's looking as I have planned it to look and I have tried my hand at paper piecing (my very first time).  It took a little experimenting and getting my head around paper piecing but eventually I go there.  Here's hoping to get as much done so that I could hand stitch the dresden plates onto the background fabric whilst on holidays.